Before we get into the blog's first proper Christmas post for the year, allow me to direct you here, to Jenny Oaks Baker's rendition of "Ding Dong Merrily on High," a track I only just discovered last night. I don't think there's a better song with which I can welcome this first Christmas beer.

The beer is Sam Adams' Old Fezziwig. While I have problems with how it's sold (we'll get into that in a bit), I'm thrilled to finally be doing up a proper post on the ale.

We've come now, to the ending of the current blog season. This is the final beer of 2021's Maple Month. I purchased this bottle on November 27th, 2020. I've had it in my cellar for nearly a year.

This beer, this Maple Month's swansong, is, of course Goose Island's Bourbon County Brand #4 Special Stout (I'll refer to it as #4 from here on out). I picked this up nearly a year ago knowing that I'd crack into it for this evening's post. Let's see if cellaring it for a year's paid off.

In my previous post, I said that, with the three brews I had remaining, we were moving onto the bruisers of the month. The beer I drank then was 12% ABV. The next two get progressively stronger.

Today's beer is Jackie O's Bourbon Barrel Black Maple. I won't lie to you: I've had this beer before. All the same, I excited to sit down with my bottle and spend some good, quality time with the beer. Really do it up with the whole John Likes Beer treatment. It's cold, grey, and rainy out but we have a fire roaring in our stove. It's perfect heavy maple beer weather.

Today, we're rounding the corner and closing in on Maple Month's homestretch, which means just one thing: I'll be drinking some bruisers.

The first in this series of three is from Hubbard's Cave. They do a lot within the pastrystout scene and are something of a big deal. Last year I drank their Imperial Maple Stout and scored it perfectly, meaning it earned my highest recommendation. Will the brewery's Päncake Walk impress me just as much?

This season, I'd planned for two respites from the heavy, stout-laden maple offerings I'd be drinking. The first was a maple cider. The second is this afternoon's beer: A smoked lager featuring maple syrup. I figured that ought to be light enough, right?

I'm actually excited for today's beer, mainly because I've never before encountered a lager that features maple syrup as an adjunct. But, somehow, Oxbow figured out the trick to pulling it off. I bought this can back in February or March of this year (the canning date stamped on the bottom is January). I'm following the instructions printed on the label: It's been kept cold in my fridge since I brought it home and I'm enjoying it within a year of it's production. 

Now, without further preamble (excepting the bit immediately below where I talk a little about Oxbow), here's Sap Haus.

It's time, at last, for the first true breakfast beer post of the month. Hey, I made it nearly two weeks before ripping the seal off of that one, which has to count for something, right?

Today's offering comes to us from Rusty Rail. I've only had a single beer from them before and it impressed the hell out of me. This means that I have pretty damn high expectations for what I have on hand today: Waffle Sauce. If it holds up to those expectations, good news! I have a pint of it to drink. If it's bad, well, I'll still finish the pint.

This is the only Thanksgiving beer I'm doing up this year. It's one that I saw on the shelves last year, but my Maple Month lineup was pretty set in stone by that point. As the holiday season waned, I saw it leave store shelves and figured that I'd missed my chance.

But! In February of this year, I found a lone can left in the build-your-own sixer section of a local bottleshop. I built a pack just to include it. Turns out that I didn't need to worry because the beer came back this year anyway. Or maybe retailers have found a few more packs of the stuff in their backrooms. Regardless, I have a slightly-aged can to crack into today. I'm calling that a treat.

Oh, and the beer's R. Shea's Maple Mashed Sweet Potatoes (I should've included a spoiler here for those of you who didn't read this post's title).

Remember two years ago, when I drank Odd Side's Hipster Brunch Stout? Back then, I'd said my dad was able to find a pack for my in the wilds of Michigan bottleshops. See, I'd seen the beer online and figured it'd be worth featuring in my inaugural maple month; I wasn't wrong.

As fate would have it, my dad also picked up this bottle of Rye Hipster Brunch for me. Tonight's beer, though, was a surprise because, frankly, I wasn't aware of the stout's existence. I've been holding onto my bottle for a bit now (it's officially one year aged), and I'm ready to crack into it.

I'm sick today. Not COVID-19-sick (I took a test as soon as I woke up) but the kind of sick that indicates you really need to stay home from work, get some rest, drink plenty of fluids, and listen to some pleasant tunes.

Well, I've done all of that. And, for the moment, my symptoms are somewhat subsided. Even if they weren't, I can still taste and smell just fine. So I figure, why not keep this resting train a-rolling and break into my next can of mapley goodness?

Today, I'll be cracking into a can of Farmhaus Cider's Brunch. Let's see how its drinking on this warm November evening.

Welcome back to Maple Month. Before venturing any further, have you read Monday's post? If not, you might want to check it out; today's beer is an evolution of the one I featured then.

You've read it? Great. That means we can jump right into today's beer: Roak's BBA Devil Dog. Let's see how it carries through with all the mapley, French toasty goodness of its non-barrel-aged brethren.

Maple Month's roaring right in this year. The weather's attained a sustained chill. I've spent the better part of the day writing my heart out for NaNoWrimo and working for the man so it's time, at long last, to break into a beer.

I'll drop the fanfare here and get right to it: Today I'm drinking Roak's French Toast Devil Dog. I had initially hoped to do a two-for post, featuring this and its BBA variant but a quick glance at the ABVs of the stouts led me to think better of that plan.